Wendy2 Loc: California

I used that originally, but find the ColorMunki much better.

cacompton

I'll put in my two cents and rave about the Spyder Studio set. It calibrates the monitor but then you have to calibrate tour printer and whatever paper you use to the monitor. After that the results are amazing. To me, worth the price. Shop the web. Prices vary.

coco1964 Loc: Winsted Mn

I use Spyder4 on my Dell Ultrasharp. There are buttons on the side of the monitor that allow you to make all adjustments to your monitor so it will coincide with what you see on your monitor and what comes out of your printer. I was pulling my hair out before I got a decent monitor and calibrator. On the other hand very seldom do I get a print that looks the same way that UHH displays it on my calibrated monitor...............

normsImages Loc: Alabama for now

I use spyder works good for me. I use a MAC book pro laptop with a second monitor. Both monitors look the same after calibrating. Also download the ICC profile for the paper and printer you are using. One thing LR4 improved in the print module is a brightness and contrast adjustment. The brightness adjustment comes in handy because most people run there monitor brighter than will be printed.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I have an X-Rite eye-one display 2 calibration device that only calibrates the monitor. I've decided to get one that does the monitor, printer and a projector (if you own one).

I've been doing a lot of experimenting with the whole color problem - from colors displaying in Photoshop one way to the same image being posted on the web, to wall paper, to personal printer to commercial printers. This is a whole chapter in photography that is swept under the rug unless you are brave enough and determined enough to look into it.

First, I've discovered that if you fool around with color space in Photoshop, or whatever post processing program you use, remember to use 'convert to' and convert the image to sRGB before printing or posting, or emailing to anyone.

Second, you must use a calibration device on you monitor if you care about the color, hue, saturation etc. True, you can use the eye-ball calibration method in Windows and Mac operating systems and I guess this is better than nothing but 'not much'.

Third, if you print on you own home printer you need to experiment with the printer settings and write down what works best. If you want reliable colors on you home printer, you can also profile (calibrate) your printer. This involves a similar proceedure to calibrating your monitor and some devices like the Colormunki Photo device will do it and give you great results for the paper and ink you're profiled to. Yes, you need to profile each type of paper you use (not size) Matte, Gloss, Semi-gloss etc.

There's a lot more to this than these three suggestions. I've run into a lot of problems in my quest to learn about color space and profiling - too many to type here.

Most labs are set up to print sRGB images saved as jpg. If you are having trouble with Costco, Walgreens or Walmart colors, then make sure your camera is shooting sRGB and not AdobeRGB. Also make sure that your post processing color space is also set to sRGB. This is the simplest proceedure for people that don't want to fuss with these problems.

Wendy2 Loc: California

I have calibrated my Costco paper and it is just not working! I use the ColorMunki Photo. I get better results by choosing, of all things when I print, CIE RGB or the calibration I did for my monitor, as what should be a paper choice.. Those are not paper profiles but for some reason they match my screen more closely. I have even resorted to abandoning the monitor calibration I did with my ColorMunki Photo and use CIE RGB to view in photoshop. It works and I don't know why. Anyone have an answer for that?

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Here's a good explaination on how to use profiles from the company that maintains all of Costcos printers.
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/using_printer_profiles.htm
They calibrate and keep them repaired. The lab technicians at Costco are not helpful, but this company is. They will also help you via email if you have questions. I've asked them a few. Also, try searching colormunki on youtube. You will probably get a good selection of videos. I think you can also try X-Rite and see if you can get tech support from them. It's probably something simple like not disabling the printers driver so that CS can control printing. It could be a problem with Windows 7. Windows Vista and 7 have had problems with monitor profiles and loading them each time you start the computer. In other words, after you calibrate the monitor it works fine until the next time you reboot, then it loads the old WCM monitor profile instead of the new icc created by Colormunki. Completely useless.


If you still have trouble after reading and experimenting with this I have more information and things you can try. http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/using_printer_profiles.htm


Edit: Here's the link about Windows loosing the monitor calibration: http://www.pusztaiphoto.com/articles/colormgmt/win7/default.aspx

Wendy2 Loc: California

Thanks for trying. I have been through it all. I contacted Canon (I have the Canon Pro9000) and they gave me steps for printing properly. I have a Mac and it was explained to me that when you choose Photoshop manages that the printer management is disabled (a few more steps than that, but that's it in a nutshell.) I have reviewed Drycreek too.

I will continue to search for an answer. I know this works on my Mac and Canon printer but if I need to print anywhere else it will probably be a disaster.

Wendy2 Loc: California

This is an interesting twist to my ongoing dilemma! I have tried everything in Photoshop, calibrating my monitor a zillion times, contacting Canon regarding turning off printer management, setting up the correct workflow according to drycreek. I have done EVERYTHING and nothing was working right.

I set my monitor to the most recent calibration, opened the same raw image I have been using in Photoshop, in Lightroom 3, adjusted the image, opened the printer dialog and found different choices but those choices were pretty much the same when in Photoshop, and printed. Voila, the print looked just like the image in Lightroom (and Photoshop).

I saved the image and then opened it in photoshop, printed it and it turned out dull and off color. I am beginning to think that the printer management is not actually being turned off when I use photoshop, as Canon told me that it was, if I follow their instructions.

Can any one explain that?

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I have never printed from LR3 but I'm sure it has some printer preferences and color space settings. You might check what those are set for in LR and emulate those settings in Photoshop just to see what happens. Sounds like you are on the right track.

Wendy2 Loc: California

But I did just that. Although set up a little differently in Lightroom, the end choices were the same.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Here's some good information from UHH

http://finerworks.com/tips/soft-proofing-images-with-photoshop.aspx

Wendy2 Loc: California

That was interesting. I always go through that process but have never checked simulate paper color. THAT makes a difference in the appearance. I will have to experiment more with that, bring the new image (the image I see after the simulate paper color is checked) up to the original image (which I liked) and see how it prints.

I appreciate your input and think it is great that you are concerned. I love this forum!

Wendy2 Loc: California

Well I tried it. There was some improvement but not enough. When I printed directly from Lightroom, it was right on. I don't know how it will print in a lab. I will have to send it out and have it printed in order to see if my monitor profiling is accurate and which image is correctly represented, the one in Lightroom or the one in Photoshop.


To be continued.......

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Actually I'm going through this with you. I have a Canon Pixma Pro9000 II printer that is a really nice printer but I kept getting prints that the colors were way off. So I bought an inexpensive X-Rite eye-one 2 colorimeter and calibrated my monitors. One of my monitors is a factory second so I know that there are/were color issues or calibration issues with it to begin with. It's very hard to make them both look the same. I must have calibrated them a dozen times until I was satisfied. Mostly my fault for not using the advanced mode the first time and then not following the instructions.

But my prints were still bad and they still didn't look right from Costco. I got the Colormunki and now my Pixma Pro is 100% better. I have not tried to print from Costco yet since calibrating my monitors with the Colormunki. I mostly photograph wildlife and my greatest concern is getting the sky to look blue - not purple. I at least want to be able to get it close. I don't like lavender skies either. I edited one image to take to Costco and saved it many different ways to see how they would print. I had Costco print two batches - one with color enhancements (color management) on and one set with it off. Believe it or not, every print with the color management 'on' came out beautiful except that the skies were dark blue and not a realistic light blue. But no purple. The other set was a mixed bag. ProPhoto all came out purple. AdobeRGB all came out lavender. The sRGB came out ok, but still a little on the lavender side and the shades were off. I used Costco icc profiles and they were a little closer. And finally I saved the files with 'no color profile' and they came out the closest. But with that selection, they appear awful on the screen when you pull it back up in CS5.

Now that I know how to proof the images by making a dup, and re-editing the dup to get the screen to look like the original when proofing, I think I'll be closer yet with the Costco icc.

Keep in touch and let us know your findings.